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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  5. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. kid — to tease
  3. game — wild animals
  4. current — of water
  5. current — happening now
  6. clip — to cut
  7. fall — to drop
  8. lie — to recline
  9. game — a match
  10. file — a line of people
  11. land — a country
  12. current — electric
  13. land — to come down
  14. file — a tool
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. fall — the season
  17. file — a document
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. lie — an untruth
  20. clip — for paper
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. fall — to drop
  23. land — ground
  24. clip — a video

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com